Camino v3 - Day 22: Châtellerault to Tours (83km)

In Lusignan there was a coffee maker but no filters or coffee. This morning I had coffee and filters (brought with me from Lusignan) but no coffee maker. But with a bit of improvisation I still managed to make myself some coffee to go with my (equally improvised)  breakfast. Necessity is the mother of invention after all. I have the pilgrim refuge - the same one I stayed in on the journey southwards - all to myself, which means I can do what I want when I want, but also takes away from the idea of staying in a pilgrim hostel and sharing the experience with other people following the same route. I am on the road before sunrise, anticipating the longer ride today and wanting to get as much of the ride done in the cooler part of the day since the forecast is for a hot day, which it indeed turns out to be.

Antogny - morning stop

I am backtracking much of the route today, recognising things and places as I ride. At Antogny I stop at a nice little square opposite the church, which I completely missed on the way down. It's a nice spot for my morning coffee break, even though there's no coffee to be had in this tiny little village. I make do with water and the pastry that I brought with me. Although I'm riding the same route there's still some things it get to see for the first time, which is nice.

At Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois, which is the town where the well-coiffed woman chatted with me from the window of her house, the Maison du Dauphin, I stop for lunch. I decide to take a different route from here back to Tours, so I'm not completely retracing my steps. I let my GPS app propose some options, since my map isn't detailed enough to show all the little roads. It's amazing that here in France even the tiniest little roads are sealed and perfectly suited for my purpose (for this final part I'm trying to avoid unsealed paths, wanting to complete the whole journey without any punctures if I can). I decide to be a bit lazy and follow a GPS route from here, which takes me quite a bit further west than the original route, but enters Tours via a much nicer area.

Entering Tours with the tram

It turns out to be quite a good ride, going through a couple of nice towns, in particular Monts, which I note for future reference. Once I get to the outskirts of Tours it turns out that my app is pretty good at finding bike paths, and even if at times the route seems a bit bizarre, it does actually make some sense. I cross the river, Le Cher, on a bike path that follows the tram line, which I would never have thought to do from the map, which shows the bridge as having no road, just the tram line.

And then suddenly there I am, standing in front of the Basilique Saint Martin and I've reached my destination. I have a bit of the same 'and now what's next' feeling I had when I reached the cathedral in Santiago. In any case I have some time to kill, since the nuns running the pilgrim refuge associated with the basilica, where I plan to spend my last night of this journey, don't open for business until 18:00 and I've arrived at about 15:00. But I have a mission: I want to get my squashed glasses fixed if possible. I find a branch of the same optician chain that I bought the glasses from years ago and lucky for me I am served by a very helpful woman who knows about the Chemin de Compostelle and is very understanding of my situation. While I wait, my glasses are fixed, and at absolutely no cost. I even get a new case to protect them together with a well-intentioned lecture on taking better care of my glasses. Who says customer service is dead in France? Here's the exception. Not bad at all.

Arrival at the Basilique de Saint Martin, Tours

Tours has free WiFi in many parts of the city, so I sit in a park catching up on a few things while being 'entertained' by having to see a young couple with several dogs let their dog take a shit on the grass right where people are sitting with their lunches. Shortly thereafter two mounted police ride through the park and I am secretly hoping that they are the dog shit police but no such luck. To somehow enforce this point, one of the riders lets her horse liberally pee onto the grass. Knowing that the grass is used for dog shit and horse pee makes me glad I've chosen to sit on a bench.

Basilica dormitory for one tonight

At the appointed hour I am at the basilica and being shown around, together with two other cyclists (a Dutch couple, of course) by one of the nuns. The place is spotlessly clean and well equipped. It's not meant just for Santiago pilgrims, but mainly as a place for people looking for a spiritual retreat for whatever reason. Tonight there's just the three cyclists and the head nun clearly doesn't see us as "real" pilgrims, which, to be fair, by her definition we probably aren't. Although I had thought that perhaps the pilgrims shared their dinner with the nuns, the three of us eat alone in large (spotless) dining hall. The dinner is much less frugal than I had been lead to believe and although simple is copious and good. There's even dessert.

Pilgrim Credencial - completed

The head nun comes after dinner to arrange breakfast and departure times, as well as take our payment since we will be leaving around the time of matins. "You can pay me now" she says, "The amount is up to you and it's €30 per person." I find this statement a little contradictory but don't press the point. I'm thinking that for Dutch bike riders, who are all using the same guide in which the refuge is mentioned, the sisters have realised that not many of them are actually on a spiritual pilgrimage and that they can afford to pay a reasonable amount. Walkers no doubt get a different treatment, which is probably not at all unreasonable. Arlette the Belgian walker I met in Lusignan had stayed here and when we talked about it confirmed that, for her at least, the payment was indeed 'donativo' meaning at the discretion of and according to the means of, the pilgrim. She had given €15, which probably gave her some extra pocket money for a couple of extra cans of beer for the walk the next day.

We each get a set of keys with an explanation of which key is for what: "This key is for your room, this key is for the big gate and the little key is for the church." I check to make sure I've heard that correctly: I've just been given the key to let myself into the Basilica of Saint Martin in Tours. We are not taking about a little local church here; we're taking about a tourist destination basilica of serious proportions and importance. And I have the key. Of course I have to test this and so after dinner I let myself into the now empty church, which I have all to myself for as long as I like. How good is that?

Ride this way